Proust At The Majestic is a brilliant piece of literary criticism mingled with social gossip

As a teenager, an early mentor of mine declared that I was not to venture through life without reading Marcel Proust's "A la recherche du temps perdu"...at least three times. Well, I still haven't gotten through the first reading yet but this weekend I found inspiration to give it another try. Richard Davenport-Hines' "Proust At The Majestic" does a magnificent job of giving a Proust novice a great sense of bearing in understanding where the legendary novel comes from. A very intriguing mix of biography, a short history of early 20th century parisienne social life, literary criticism and party tattle (think early 20th century hiss), I love this book for giving me a framework to spin from. The book starts with a dinner party for Diaghilev attended by Stravinsky, Picasso, Proust AND James Joyce. Imagine the hiss amongst all those genius Modernists in one room. A book like this just reignites a passion in you to do the very best work you are capable of.